Part One: Spatial Strategy and Policies

Accessible Neighbourhoods:

Where land uses (local services, schools, employment and housing) are better aligned, spatially, with transport planning (transport infrastructure), to make it easier for people to walk, cycle and use public transport.

Aggregates:

Term used to describe minerals used for construction purposes, such as sand and gravel, which can be used as hardcore or to produce mortar, cement, concrete and other building products, and hard rock, which can be crushed and used for foundations or as road stone. Aggregates can be "primary" (virgin materials quarried from the ground), "secondary" (produced as a by-product of other mineral working or industrial processing), or "recycled" (Produced from recycled waste).

Area of High Historic Townscape Value:

AHHTV

Areas of High Historic Townscape Value are identified in order to illustrate the distribution and extent of areas where built heritage makes a significant contribution to local character and distinctiveness across the borough. These areas exhibit a concentration of historic assets that in combination make a particularly positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness. This was assessed alongside the contribution of the streetscape, landscape features (including views) and their historical associations. The areas selected as warranting designation as an AHHTV are those considered to be of particular value within the Borough.

Area of High Historic Landscape Value:

AHHLV

Areas of High Historic Landscape Value refer to Landscape Heritage Areas identified by the council, which demonstrate that it is the importance of the elements of the historic environment to the character and distinctiveness of these areas that is recognised by their designation. The value of High Historic Landscape Values resides primarily in the quality of the wider landscape, such as areas of open space, woodland, watercourses, hedgerows, and archaeological features and their historic. Communal, ecological and aesthetic values.

Biodiversity:

The variety of life on Earth or in a specific region or area.

Biodiversity Net Gain:

BNG

A way to contribute to the recovery of nature while developing land.

Blue Infrastructure

Blue infrastructure relates to urban water infrastructure. Including ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and storm water provision. Sustainable drainage schemes (SuDs) are usually included within blue infrastructure.

Community Gardens

A piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively.

Cultural Heritage

Artifacts, monuments, a group of buildings and sites, museum that have a diversity of values including symbolic, historic, artistic, aesthetic, ethnological or anthropological, scientific and social significance.

Energy from Waste:

EFW

The use of waste to generate energy in the form of electricity or heat and power. The term is most often used to describe facilities that generate energy from the combustion of municipal waste. There are two examples of this type of facility in the Black Country, at Lister Road in Dudley and at Crown Street in Wolverhampton. Energy can also be generated from waste using technologies, such as anaerobic digestion (AD), mechanical and biological treatment (MBT), and the capture of landfill gas. Organic wastes can also be used as "biomass" to power generators and power plants.

Flood Zone

A geographic area within which the flood risk is in a particular range (as defined by PPS25). These are defined as Zone 1(low probability as having a less than 1 in 1000 years chance of flooding). Zone 2 (medium probability of between 1 in 100 and 1 in 1000 years chance). Zone 3a (high probability a 1 in 100 years or greater chance) and Zone 3b (functional floodplain a 1 in 20 years chance). These are mapped in the Black Country SFRA.

Geodiversity

The variety of rocks, fossils, minerals, landforms and soils along with the natural processes that shape the landscape.

Green Infrastructure

A network of multi-functional green and blue spaces and other natural features, urban and rural, which is capable of delivering a wide range of environmental, economic, health and well-being benefits for nature, climate, local and wider communities and prosperity.

Growth Network

The area covered by the Strategic Centres and Regeneration Corridors in the Black Country where growth and regeneration and land use change will be concentrated.

Household Waste Recycling Centre:

HWRC

A facility operated by or on behalf of a waste collection authority, where the public can take bulky wastes which would not normally be collected, such as rubble, large household items, and surplus waste they need to dispose of outside of the normal collection arrangements.

Landfill

A method of disposing of waste or pre-treated waste residues without attempting further re-use or recycling. Most landfill sites are former quarries where the waste is used to fill the void and help restore the site to a beneficial end-use (restoration by landfilling with waste is normally a condition of the mineral permission).

Local Green Space:

LGS

Local Green Space designation is a way to provide special protection against development for green areas of particular importance to local communities.

Local Nature Reserve:

LNR

A Local Nature Reserve or LNR is a statutory designation made under Section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 by principal local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. Local Nature Reserves (LNR's) are for both people and wildlife. They are places with wildlife or geological features that are of special interest locally. They offer special opportunities to study or learn about nature or simply to enjoy it.

Metal Recycling Site:

MRS

Any facility involving or related to metal recycling, such as a scrap yard, a metal processing facility, or a vehicle dismantler/ car breaker.

Minerals Planning Authority:

MPA

A planning authority with a statutory duty/ responsibility for mineral planning within their area, meaning that they have to prepare LDF policies on minerals and deal with planning applications for mineral development. All unitary authorities (including the Black Country Authorities) are mineral planning authorities.

Mineral Safeguarding Area:

MSA

An area designated by minerals planning authorities which covers known deposits of minerals which are desired to be kept safeguarding from unnecessary sterilisation by non-mineral development.

Municipal Waste:

MSW

(Sometimes referred to as Municipal Solid Waste or MSW for short): Waste collected by waste collection authorities (see below) from households and traders/ businesses or deposited at household waste recycling centres/ Civic amenity sites. It is the responsible of the waste disposal authority (see below) to manage the municipal waste arising within their area.

National Nature Reserve:

NNR

National Nature Reserves were established to protect some of our most important habitats, species, and geology, and to provide "outdoor laboratories" for research. There are currently 221 NNRs in England with a total area of over 105,00 hectares.

Site of Importance for Nature Conservation:

SINC

These are the most important areas for ecology and/or geology outside of sites with statutory protection. They are broadly of a quality to be important within the Birmingham and Black Country sub-region. The schedule of SINCs in Birmingham and the Black Country is maintained by the Local Sites Partnership.

Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation:

SLINC

These sites are broadly of a quality to be of importance for ecology and/or geology at the borough/city level. The schedule of SLINCs in Birmingham and the Black Country is maintained by the Local Sites Partnership.

Site of Special Scientific Interest:

SSSI

A formal conservation designation describes an area that's of particular interest to science due to the rare species of fauna and flora it contains, as well as important geological or physiological features that are within the designation area.

Special Areas of Conservation:

SACs

Strictly protected sites designated under the EC Habitats Directive. The habitat types and species for which these sites are designated, are those considered to be most in need of conservation at a European level.

Social Cohesion

The extent of connectedness and solidarity among groups in society.

Strategic Flood Risk Assessment:

SFRA

A study to assess the risk to an area or site from flooding, now and in the future, and to assess the impact that any changes or development on the site or area will have on flood risk to the site and elsewhere. It may also identify, particularly at more local levels, how to manage those changes to ensure that flood risk is not increased. The Black Country SFRA identifies those areas that have 'low', 'medium' and 'high' probability of flooding and recommends possible flood risk mitigation solutions where flood risk has been identified as a potential constraint to future development.

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is central to the economic.

Urban Greening:

Public landscaping and urban forestry projects that increase the number of green spaces within cities.

Urban Historic Landscape Characterisation:

UHLC

A method of identification and interpretation of the varying historic character within an urban area that looks beyond individual heritage assets as it brigades understanding of the whole landscape and townscape.

Wheeling

An equivalent alternative to foot/pedestrian-based mobility, for example the use of wheelchairs and mobility scooters or other mobility aids (that are similar to the speed of walking).